Decisions
by Glyphemum
Summary: Kirk always knew there where less than stellar corners Starfleet had their fingers in, but he was not aware of the fact that his first officer was more than involved in one of those muddy pools. He was even more surprised when he noticed later on to which extent the repercussions affected him and his ship, but he told himself that he should have seen it coming... Kirk/OC
1. Chapter 1

It wasn't that bad, and it seemed to get better. Slowly - she had to admit, but the fates seemed to finally humor her. Sitting at the Ships Com Stations, she allowed herself to savior the quiet moment, when the Tomcats had just come in from the Sudanese coast, all back safely and towed to the deck. She smiled as her eyes fell on the shiny, new ensigns that marked her as a Lieutenant, bringing the recent promotion back to her mind. It felt good, it felt like she had finally found a place she could put her abilities to a good use and got acceptance and trust in return.

It had been some tough years, the starting conditions had not been ideal - coming out of an orphanage, the army had been the best option for a youngster with a clever mind and high hopes, willing to prove herself. Great Lakes had been hell, but commander Stiples, her RDC, somehow grew fond of the tough little stray and recommended her to her former CT unit, a chance she willingly took. And so she became a "Spook", working with classified information at the ships communications and getting more and more inseparable from the station.

She then finally had the opportunity to graduate, again by encouragement - this time it was captain Rogers, who even enabled her to touch a full stipend, allowing her to thread on a path she would never have thought possible before. Only ten days ago had she thrown midshipman cover in the air and changed them for the two golden stripes she now proudly wore. However, she was well aware of the fact that she had been lucky to have made it that far, as she had never been the role model of a "good soldier". Far too independent-minded, always tempted to rely more on her personal judgment than on orders given for the sake of being orders. She knew that her future would not be with the military, there had been incidents enough to clearly show this, and it was only due to Stiples and Rogers promotion that she made it to this rank, allowing her to leave the ship for a safe future outside the army. It evoked a strange mixture of feelings – she was damn glad to get out of the treadmill those ships were – had to be, but she was also scared to lose the only life she knew.

The young officer admitted vaguely to herself that coming back to USS Abraham Lincoln to train her successor at the ships com station instead of taking holidays had been a decision borne from the scary feeling of having free time and nobody to spend it with. She had feared that with her surroundings this – especially for her - rather unusual behavior and her not strictly necessary presence onboard would raise awkward questions, but after she had declared it to some comrades as her way of saying thank you to Cpt. Rogers it had been accepted surprisingly easily; she had no family to return home to, and despite that fact that she accepted this most of the time, it felt sad not to be able to share this joy with her relatives. Rogers knew this, he accepted that the crew of this ship was more of a family to her than anything, and he had welcome her back happily for the short time, before she had to leave the carrier heading back to Great lakes, taking her next career steps.

"Hey 'Thash, when are you finished tonight?" came the voice of Carl over her earpiece. Petty Officer Carl, with which she had started aboard this ship, who had grown very fond of her over the course of the years; she had noticed this, though never openly admitted it. In the weeks before she left for West point there had always been a slight tension in their relationship that had even increased after she came back, only to leave again so soon. "Rogers wanted to see me in his office," she quipped back with a friendly grin that could be heard in her voice. "But I guess it won't be long. See you later?" "Mmh," came the prompt reply "let's stop by at the beach club tonight. Supposed to be a good party down there." Her smile turned to a toothy grin, as she remembered the beach club, the favored meeting place for the ships crews when stationed in this harbor; it brought back memories of wild parties, bad hangovers, and glorious triumphs at some drinking contests. Being able to step up to the guys (at least to some of them) had earned her respect pretty quickly and made her life in an organisation that was ruled mainly by respect and rank a lot easier. So she really looked forward to the evening despite the fact that Carls voice had had a slight edge on it that brought a sense of foreboding to the back of her mind, maybe fuelled by Carl's behavior over the last days. He had been trying to force some kind of decision, or breakthrough in this relationship that never had been one and – if she had anything to say in it – would never go beyond the "friends with benefits" status. But at least she was willing to step that far, even though a nasty feeling rose in her stomach at the thought that told her that her agreement was based on a rather strange mix of thankfulness for him being a true friend and pity to watch his attempts at getting a more affectionate relationship with her. "O.k., see you there, I'll come down to the club when I'm done here." She told Carl and took out the earpiece.

So, first things first; and next on her list was Rogers, whom she expected to say some motivating phrases that would get the patriotic tone just right: giving inspiration for one of his charges bound to fly out from the nest and prove herself to the world. She had heard these kinds of speeches so often on different occasions that she lost her faith in them, having remarked a while ago that they were giving a warm and cozy feeling mostly to the officer who held them. But as often with this man, she found that here expectations were not met – at all.

"So, _Lieutenant_" Rogers stopped and smiled, shaking his head slightly "never thought I would be able to address you like this, of all people."

The woman opposite of him grinned and shook her head "Oh yeah off little faith, my Captain. You thought I would not be able to behave during my time at Westpoint?"

"I know exactly, Lt. Fisher, that your sense of obedience is not developed in a way that would enable you to stay in the good books of an US Navy instructor." He sighed "I always considered myself lucky that your clever little mind allowed you not to overstep the fine line between subtle disrespect and open insubordination, at least on board of this ship. So, I guess the more civilian life of being a technical instructor will do you and the US Navy good."

Natasha was now smiling openly, her whole face showing the adoration she felt for this man and her trust in his judgment. He had been the real reason she put up with the army for such a long time, being one of the men she could really look up to. "Yeah, I hope it's going to work out well, guess it depends of their tolerance level for independent minds. But I'll miss this ship, if I may add, Sir."

"And we're going to miss you, Lieutenant. Don't let them change you, wherever you might end up." He answered her smile with his own, standing up and extending his hand. She took it, shook it briefly, and turned to leave when he stopped her with another question, his tone serious and a little subdued.

"Natasha, has your search for your family brought up any results so far?" Her breath hitched at the question as she turned around after a second, but her eyes stayed on the floor and her face was a carefully engineered blank mask. She felt desperation and anger overwhelm her, wanted to open her mouth, to yell at him that this was none of his business! Wanted to cry at the same time, hated that he reminded her of this. But she couldn't; so after a long moment of awkward silence she looked him dead in the eyes and just shook her head a tiny little bit. He looked back at her with a doleful expression in his eyes "I'm sorry to hear that, but I fear that after such a long time you will have to face the truth that there is not enough information for a successful search."

The girls gaze had returned to the floor, her eyes shimmering wet with unshed tears. "You're right" she all but whispered, clutching the pendant, the only reminder of her heritage that she wore at all times around her neck firmly "there's nothing to find, I guess".

While she stood rooted to the spot unsure how to deal with the situation, he crossed the office in two big strides and embraced her in a fatherly hug. "I know you'll soon find a good man to build your own family, my little girl. And until then, I'd be happy to get a postcard or two whenever you feel like it. And maybe," he smiled "just maybe, when your schedule allows this I'd be happy to welcome you here again for some days."

A warm and grateful feeling welled up inside Natasha at these words and after slowly nodding, promising to write often, and spending some holidays aboard the Abraham Lincoln she left the Capitan's office with a smile on her lips, ready to move on. Having no family still hurt, but she was ready to build up a future and see what life had in stock for her.

The immediate thing life had in stock for her was a fun as expected – the party at the beach, with lots of drinking, dancing and music. She had entered the club and soon detected Carl at their usual spot at the bar, surrounded by his friends. He had apparently been looking for her and seen her entering, as the barkeeper already placed a beer in front of her when she reached the group. The guys were cheering joyfully, as it was Karaoke-night, the most welcome time to watch hilarious performances of comrades making fools of themselves. She had always gotten around those Karaoke nights by just avoiding being there, as she had never been one for public humiliation; she could sing alright, the orphanage had had a choir and through her whole school life she had been forced to attend it, even been one of the solo performers. But she knew that this was not what was expected here, it would just let her stick out more from the group, this is why she had avoided it all the time. And this was exactly why she knew what would be the marching order of the evening:

a) get a lot of alcohol in Natasha (she was curious how they were going to achieve this, seeing her extremely high tolerance to the stuff especially as she was no regular drinker)

b) get Natasha to humiliate herself by singing Karaoke of an impossibly ridiculous song (oh, she had some ideas about that)

c) (and this was probably Carls part) get Natasha to a secluded place and see what a lovesick Petty Officer could gain from a drunken girl.

She was all right with this plan, knowing that she would be leaving some days after this, not having to face the music for long that was bound to be playing after this night. So she smiled, grabbed her beer and clinked the bottle while the barkeeper placed shots in front of the group.

She had to admit, the boys had really devised a plan for tonight, subtly taking turns, making sure that she drank every time while they went at it a bit slower. But paying attention to their behavior also allowed her to devise counter measures, which consisted in playing drunk more than she actually was. It proved successful, as she was only a bit tipsy (okay, it had been two beers and 8 shots, but that was ok for her), when Carl approached her, grinning broadly: "you know what I have missed for the whole time you were aboard this ship?" She only arched one eyebrow, feigning surprise, although she hardly doubted the rest of the phrase would come as a surprise to her. "You singing a sweet, romantic song at Karaoke night" He giggled drunkenly and ducked away, while the others started a roaring laughter around her. Knowing better than to scream bloody murder or trying to escape her fate, she let them hear a loud "fuck you", that raised even more laughter, while she was led to the Microphone when the first tunes of music started to play. She recognized it immediately as the worst possible option – who in their right mind would allow a Frank Sinatra song be played at all? And this one, for gods' sake? Darkly chuckling to herself, she braced herself to give the boys a surprise as the intro to "Something Stupid" went on, knowing the text so well from countless weddings she had performed it on that she didn't even bother to look at the screen for the lyrics.

Yeah, she hit the tone allright, and never being one to spoil the mood she took her sweet little revenge on Carl: him being the one who initiated all this, and knowing full well about his crush on her, she started to sing this song TO him. She made sure to get all the tremolos right, the sighing voice and the dramatic little pauses the song offered to create the desired effect. And the effect she got: they boys were cheering loudly at both of them, while Carl stood dumbstruck, his mouth literally gaping open, his eyes fixed on her face.

She had to keep the satisfied smirk from her face when Carl dragged her outside with almost light-speed immediately after the song ended, an unreadable expression on his face.

They went on the beach and walked along the sea, Carl not letting go of her hand for a second, thought he did not look at her once. The expression on his face she got to see upon her sideways glances was nervous, as trying to make sense of what had just happened and at the same time trying to regain composure. He walked very fast in the beginning, almost dragging her along, but after a while he started to slow down into a stroll, while his face relaxed. They were now far away from the beach club and had left the shoreline some time ago to walk through the dunes, all white sand gleaming in the moonlight, interspersed with marsh. It was a beautiful romantic setting on a warm summer night, the sea breeze whispering gently, the starry sky above them a sight to behold.

The officer finally stopped and dragged her down to sit by his side in the Sand, his eyes searching hers: "Nat, I'm…" he trailed of, obviously not daring to voice his train of thoughts out loud. Finally, he looked back up with a sheepish grin on his face: "guess the time's right, isn't it?"

The addressed looked at him with a warm expression in her eyes "Some clever lines coming my way?"

Carl's smile broadened "Pray tell, which exactly would those be? I've been searching them for years now"

Natasha threw her head back laughing, while he sat there watching her intensively. He had fallen for the looks first: her full lips, her light brown hair that curled up when it got wet, her eyes that were between green and brown and showed so much of her emotions, always alert and often smiling. Yes, he admitted to himself she was cute and although she was nowhere near the ethereal beauty of a fotomodel, she outshone them all with this unidentifiable "something" that made her just perfect. He had seen many guys falling for that "something", but they had all been turned down quickly, and so he had not dared to express his feelings openly for the fear of losing her. Because he couldn't bear losing her, he had been sure of this for a while, once he had gotten to know the mind behind the beautiful eyes: everyone knew the clever, independent mind and her quick wit, always cracking a joke. But he knew a girl that cared deeply for her counterpart, listened and understood and strived hard to make people around her happy in her own, unobtrusive way. It did not show in public and few people were aware of this side of "little miss perfect" as she had once been dubbed; some people even claimed her as arrogant, but he knew…

He had gotten lost in his thoughts; when his mind came back to the beach, he noticed that Natasha was sitting next to him, her knees under her chin, arms wrapped around them. She was looking at the glittering water in the distance, which the waves brought to the shore in a never-ending cycle of back and forth.

"Tash," he turned to face her searching her eyes. When she heard her name she put her cheek on the knees, turning to face him and their eyes locked into one another's. "Do you think there are any clever lines?" she mused. She was silent for a minute, and the man facing her was at a loss for words, so he stayed quiet and waited for her to continue.

"Carl, you will not need any clever words to tell me how you feel. And" she sighed "that is probably the reason why… we are what we are: "you and me" and not "us". But" she hesitated, her skin shining almost white in the pale moonlight "maybe we could try... the "us"?" While saying these words, she brought her knees down to her side and turned her chest so that she was fully facing him. Carl gave in to the pull he felt almost bodily and moved forward, bringing his lips close so close to hers that they were breathing the same air. "I would love to", he murmured before slowly pressing his lips on to hers for an almost chaste kiss. It was reciprocated almost the same way, and they stayed like this, savoring the wonderful moment full of promises of a night to come. When he kissed her again, she started to open her lips, allowing his tongue access to her mouth which was eagerly claimed, and they lost themselves in a kiss full of lust that spoke of their long held desires for each other. Carl brought his hands to her neck and pulled her tenderly towards him, when his girl moaned while returning the kiss eagerly, moving closer.

Both of them did not notice the blue light that was accompanied by a low buzzing sound that suddenly lit up only several yards away. They were kissing tenderly, blissfully unaware of the fact that three heavily armed humanoids were approaching them quickly, until suddenly Natasha was grabbed by her shoulders and yanked back by the first inruder that had reached them. He hauled her to her feet and dragged her back with him, while she started shouting and tried in vain to kick at her assailant as she didn't achieve anything. Carl had been momentarily stunned, but after a second he jumped to his feet and went after his comrade and her captor. The second figure had reached the scene by know and stepped in front of the soldier, quickly drawing a dagger from its sheet and stabbing it into the man in the chest. Natasha's eyes widened in shock as she started screaming and trashing in earnest. But to no avail, as the man held her in a vice-like grip and draw her back with him to where they had appeared from.

Carl distantly felt the pain in his chest while he was slowly falling face down in the sand, his head already dizzy from blood loss. His heartbeat stopped shortly afterwards, the last thing he heard was Natasha screaming his name.


	2. Taken - Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Star Trek franchise.

-ooO0Ooo-

She screamed and kicked while she was dragged he trough the sand, her adrenaline drowning out all feelings of pain but she could not stand up to the three of them and so her captors managed to take her with them back to where they had been coming from. When they reached the spot two of them were holding her steady, one at each side and she saw the blue glow build around them until they were fully engulfed by it. Exhausted from her previous struggle she hung limply between her captors, too terrified of what had happened to allow her thoughts to dwell on the pictures of Carl falling down face first that arose in her mind.

The blink of an eye later she felt warmth around her and recognized a brightly lit room of some kind and more people standing there, obviously waiting. As soon as they saw the group holding Natasha, one of them stepped forward and pressed a little device to her arm, causing her to lose consciousness almost immediately.

When she slowly regained her senses, the first thing she felt was a numb, throbbing pain in her head. Her thoughts were slow and fuzzy, she felt disoriented and tried to get her brain back to work in order o figure out what had brought her here – wherever "here" was. Then the memories came back with full force, and the scene of the kiss, the fight, and Carl's dead flashed back into her mind – Carl with his bloodstained T-shirt, the dagger awkwardly protruding from his chest, his eyes breaking while he slowly fell face-forward in the sand. "Carl" she cried out with a strangled voice, tears streaming down her face while the world around her came tumbling down.

-ooO0Ooo-

"No! I'm not even going to say that I'm sorry, but this is out of question, Commander!"

"Captain, as I was trying to explain you, cooperation is the only logical way. There is a 63,7% chance that I will be able to have a positive influence on the outcome of this mission."

"Spock, listen" Kirk sighed, almost exasperated "I will not allow you to partake in a mission of the Aryan brotherhood! I have seen and heard enough of admiral Shields methods to know exactly where somebody who is under my command will not go!"

"The Brotherhood is an established part of Starfleet and has influence high into the inner circles. It is illogical of you to decide differently than your line of command does!" To someone knowing Spock well like his Captain, the Vulcan officer that always claimed to have no emotions whatsoever sounded almost annoyed. "I ask you to grant me leave for the duration of this mission, sir!"

"Take my word for it, Commander; you will not go on this mission! I do not even expect to hear the details, I know that I won't be told and even if you would tell me they would do nothing to change my mind. I didn't believe that you that you were even thinking of associating yourself with these anti-Romulan racists." Kirks eyes narrowed dangerously as his clipped tone draw the border of threatening "I guess it would be better if you left now, Spock."

The addressed stood rooted on the spot, his eyes fixed on a point at the far wall. As he finally spoke, the words were spoken quiet and slowly "Kirk, for the sake of your trust in me, let me go on this mission." He hesitated "I've never asked you a personal favor before, but I'm doing so now"

The smaller of the two men turned around at those words and went to the big desk that dominated the room. He slowly shook his head, but only started to speak as he had sat down behind the desk and lifted his gaze to the man now standing across the room. "I'm sorry, but: no. This is my final word."

Hearing this, the first officer of the USS Enterprise turned around wordlessly and left the captain's room for the bridge. After he had left, Kirk leaned back and exhaled the breath he was not aware he had been holding. He was indeed sorry for Spock, but after the last experience with Admiral Shield's organisation that still raised the bile in his throat he had sworn to himself that he would never again allocate any resources to anything the Aryan Brotherhood was associated with.

_Fool me once, your bad, fool me twice…_ despite the bitter grin that forced the corners of his mouth up he did not feel one bit less guilty about turning down this desperate request from his loyal first officer. Sighing, he left for the gym, hoping that some exercise would help to clear his mind.

-ooO0Ooo-

Natasha cried until her tears ran dry, crouched in the corner of the room she had been left in. Only after her dry sobs finally had faded to silence she bothered to lift her gaze, taking in the room she had been brought into. It was small and bare; clean stone floors and walls with a cot on one side, while the opposite wall contained a latch, apparently to bring things inside the cell without needing to open the door. As a cell it was, that was immediately clear to the lieutenant. She started pacing the confines of her tiny room, thoughts whirling in her mind, the most important one being "why me?". After a short time of marching back and forth, she noticed a sound at the door and turned around to face whoever would enter her prison.

It turned out to be three men, two of them carrying some kind of guns and entering quickly, positioning themselves left and right from the door. Only after this the third passed the doorstep, his composure immediately labeling as the man in charge as he walked towards their prisoner. He held one hand clutched to his chest and stared without a single word at the young woman in front of him.

Natasha had time to take the scene in, and she saw men that looked like tanned humans, if it were not for their ears that had tips protruding upwards in a way she had never seen before; they had very marked eyebrows and square yaws, and black hair trimmed to reveal their unusually shaped ears; she just couldn't place them. Not wanting to give them any hint of cooperation, she just joined the silent glaring contest.

After a short moment the man opened his palm, and Natasha's eyes widened as she suddenly saw the pendant – her pendant - dangling from his hand. Unthinking she leapt forward with a yell, trying to reach for the medallion, only to be slapped hard in the face by her captor and fall down on her side heavily.

"I will not give you the chance to use this to call them here." rose his stern voice "But if you cooperate, we will not harm you."

Her head was throbbing in pain, and the last hours had done nothing to make her more comfortable or calm her nerves. Despite her training, she was not able to hold back the tears silently streaming from her face but she mustered all the strength she had to glare at her captors

"screw you! I will not give you anything!"

* * *

A/N: No native speaker here, as you probably have noticed. Apologies for the errors and thanks in advance if somebody takes the time to point out any major ones.

Glyph


	3. One Chance- Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Star Trek franchise.

-ooO0Ooo-

Apparently she had brought the message to them successfully, as she was still crouched on the floor when the man that held her pendant in his hand flashed a vicious grin at her and left the cell quickly, the guards following him. Alone again, the more rational thoughts slowly started coming back, mostly about what the immediate future would have in stock for her after this little visit. Probably her head would not be the only hurting part of her body if the attitude shown so far was anything to go by. So the pendant did apparently hold some information, she bitterly thought. Would have been fortunate to know this when it still had been in her possession. But what could this be? And the more time passed, she really started to wonder where she had been brought and what those… Humans? Mutants? Actors? Where. She just couldn't place them.

Though her thoughts ran around in rather small circles for her liking, she decided to settle on the cot, trying to relax and regain some strength and much needed rest. Although she was not very confident to succeed in this effort.

-ooO0Ooo-

Three hours – it had only been three fucking hours before Kirk had been ordered back to his attendance room by a call from crewman Mattison informing him of an important message from Starfleet command. This message had been very brief, but this was not the worst about it. What really pissed him off was the smug grin on Admiral Shield's face when the recording ended. This, and the content, that basically consisted of Shield taking temporarily control over one of his crewmembers – namely Spock – and ordered the Enterprise to bring him to indicated coordinates without "further! Did he really dare to say 'further" delay.

Fuming he entered the order into the Enterprise' electronic brain asking to set a new course and contacted Spock over the com, ordering him into the attendance room. He studies the face of the man entering his room carefully and did no fail to notice that the jaw was locked a bit tighter than usual, small but significant indication that his first officer was not expecting his captain to do small talk with him. He glared silently at the Vulcanian for what seemed an eternity, while the other met his gaze steadily, until he finally spoke up:

"O.k. Spock. Care to tell me how it comes to pass that I get ordered to deliver you near the Romulanian neutral zone? And while we're at it I'd now really like to be informed about the nature and the goal of the mission."

"Captain," he hesitated, and Kirk was momentarily stunned; his first officer didn't _hesitate_! "I assure you that this mission is of outmost importance for me, probably for me personally, although it is not _about_ me. You might want to consider it as a rescue mission, and I can say with 98,3% probability that you would agree with the mission itself. But I'm afraid I will not tell you more about the details now, as I have no clearance to do so."

"Shield mentioned 4 days," he queried on "is there a chance of it lasting longer?"

"No Sir, if the goal of the mission has not been achieved after four days it will be aborted"

"If this is the case, will there be a repeat performance of Shields little showpiece?"

At this question, Spock averted his gaze, looking to the floor and stayed silent for ten full seconds, before he slowly replied: "No, sir. This is extremely improbable. The chance is now; there will be no second one."

He went quiet after these words and despite the fact that the minuscule hints of tension could still be detected in his features Kirk knew that he would not divulge anything else. That didn't hinder him to keep on staring at the man for a full minute, before he finally shook his head, sighing.

"Allright, I'll accept this statement for now and I won't cause you any difficulties this time, heck, I'll even go as far as to offer you the help of this ship if need be. But only on two conditions: if you get clearance later I want a full debrief of this mission and if there would be more than this one mission I will want to know the full details upfront, regardless of whether you have clearance or not."

Spock raised his eyes to Kirks and he could see the tension gone, replaced by hints of a look that he had seen on really rare occasions – something like gratitude and relief "These conditions are acceptable although logically not fully justifiable, but I still agree to them; thank you, Captain, also for your offer to help. I will now prepare for the mission." With these words he turned around and left Kirk standing in the middle of the attendance room, a sense of foreboding in the man's mind.

-ooO0Ooo-

Natasha woke up at the sound of the door look being activated, startled that she had somehow managed to doze of through her dark thoughts. She bolted up from the cot and turned again to face the door, trying to appear ready for whatever they had in stock this time. As the door opened, only the guards entered the cell, stepping towards her lithe frame and grabbing both her arms. After a brief struggle from her that did not achieve anything she was handcuffed and they led her out of the cell into a sparsely lit corridor of sorts. The guy she had come to call Commander in her mind, that had held the pendant earlier, had been waiting on the outside until the guards pushed her towards him and took the lead of the little party. Walking, she noticed that the walls where similar to the ones in her cell, they appeared to be carved from the stone. What strengthened this impression was the complete lack of windows, fresh air coming only from some kind of air vents that were fixed to the ceiling. Doors departed left and right from the corridor in regular intervals which had no lock, just a keypad to the side –apparently prison cells like hers. All in all it was a strange mixture of familiar and alien: the carved stone appeared like limestone, while the keypads seemed truly foreign to her, as well as the weapons her guards carried. They spoke English, although she couldn't place the accent. She just couldn't figure out which nation would have this kind of technology that looked too advanced to belong to any terrorist group.

After what seemed an eternity of crossing random doors, halls and stairways they halted in front of another locked door, and the commander turned to the keypad, typing in a code. The door opened with a hiss, and she was urged forward into the rather large room that appeared to be a laboratory of some kind, its predominant color being white with a kind of gurney dominating the middle of the area.


	4. Into The Unknown - Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Star Trek franchise.

-ooO0Ooo-

The guards pushed forward forcing her to enter the room, dragging her straight to the gurney. Her training started to kick in and she suddenly got aware of herself looking around the room, taking in all the small details: she noticed the systems aligned on the wall, some sort of computer screens integrated into them. They looked dusty and shabby, still there was no company logo she recognized. The middle of the room was empty aside a gurney that had a contraption consisting of some straps fixed to it. Next to it stood something she guessed was medical equipment, although it, too, looked foreign. Without any further preamble, the guards lifted her up and forced her rather harshly on the gurney. Hey wrists and ankles were fixed and finally a strap came around her waist and around her forehead. Her struggle was in vain, but she knew that from the start; it was more to show that she opposed to this treatment and, more important, to what was to come.

After this the guards stepped back, and a picture flashed into her mind, depicting men in white coats with a manic grin bending over her immobilized body that made her frantically try to turn her head, only to notice that the straps inhibited every movement in a very efficient way. The man that stepped forward instead, was kind of anticlimactic as he didn't even pay close attention to the gurney. He held a little apparatus in his hand and swiped it over her body without saying a word. After this he disappeared from her line of sight apparently turning towards the systems on the wall. While she could only wait anxiously, she heard him sit down and typing away into the computers to the far end of the room. After a short while he returned and pressed a little contraption to her upper arm leaving a cold impression - she was not able to see more – only to leave her again for some more minutes. She then heard the door opening with a quiet hiss and two men, one of the voices seemed to belong to the man in charge, talking quietly. The voices died down and moments later the 'commander' entered her line of sight:

"This is your last chance, woman. I will ask you the question once, only once, do you understand? Be assured that we have means to find out on our own, and they will not be pleasant." He went quiet and stared down at his captive who did not show any motion and held his gaze in an angry stare. Finally, he asked "why have they sent you to this time, hiding you?" He waited for an answer that didn't come, searching the face of the woman before him for any hints of emotions; finding only a cold, hard stare, he went on "what are you born with, what are the abilities they want to exploit?"

-ooO0Ooo-

The Enterprise reached the coordinates in time, all the preparations happening with the well timed precision of an experienced crew. This was one of the small wonders Kirk never tired of, this well-oiled machinery that was the spine of Starfleet's strength, at his beck and call. He did not send Spock of personally as he did not want to be associated with this mission, but it had not hindered him to call his first officer on the intercom to check he had everything he needed before leaving the ship. After the transfer he immediately gave orders to get further away from Romulan territory, leaving Admiral Shield's ship and his first officer to their fate.

-ooO0Ooo-

Spock had been immediately led to the bridge of the smaller, but well equipped ship. Shield and his Aryan brotherhood were resourceful, a fact that the officer had known beforehand but realized again as he was led through the silent corridors of the ship that were packed with equipment so advanced that it was barely available to Starfleet development units. Upon reaching the bridge Shield nodded and gestured him to follow him to his attendance room, where he sat down at a small conference table on which two pads lay prepared. He handed one to Spock: "This is the information we have on the Story of your sister's life on earth. You will notice that there has been nothing out of the ordinary, except for a rather high intelligence and a strong will, her superiors mentioning the 'independent spirit' that led to some friction during her training for the navy." He grinned "Let's see if we can get her back. We picked up the signal of her transponder three days ago not far from here at the border of the Romulan zone, near a secret operations base we know of. It is still active, apparently moving slowly towards the inner realms, but we should be easily able to reach it within half a day. Apparently the Romulan bastards abducted her 2013, risking their lives to jump back in time."

Spock had activated the pad and nodded at his words, quickly strolling to the files until he stopped at a picture of a woman. She was brown haired, with rather fine features but the face was nothing out of the ordinary, as far as he was concerned. What really captivated his gaze where her eyes, which were fixed in the onlooker in a very open, alert and expressive glance, making him feel immediately familiar with the girl on the screen. He spoke up

"I understand. We will need to additionally secure the means which allowed them their time travel in order to assess whether we will need to take measures to prevent further events like this. Did you pick up any readings of the event itself?"

His counterpart shook his head, a slightly annoyed smile tugging at the corners of his mouth: "As. Always, you're asking the right questions. Still want to stick with that imbecile Kirk? I would need your mind on missions of greater importance to the united federation" This was Spock's prompt to shake his head in negation. "I appreciate the offer but I have to admit that my loyalties are with the USS Enterprise, and it is only my personal involvement which led to my partake in this, although I would like to mention again that I am not in favor of not informing my superior of the goal of this mission." At those words Shield's smile turned into a full grin, and getting up he said: "Well, then, let's find our little princess and the technology that led them bastards to her and then you can go your merry way." Sensing that he would not get more information, Spock stood up, captivating the admiral's gaze in his:

"Shield, I hope you are aware that I will take my sister with me after we freed her!"

He only got another grin at those words, when the admiral replied "We'll see, Spock, we'll see."


End file.
